DNV GL has introduced Turbine.Architect, a new in-house software tool enabling turbine engineers and component developers to quickly calculate the impact of their technology on Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) for a realistic wind project.
Turbine.Architect uses sophisticated, integrated design algorithms. It supports turbine design and component technology development by quantification of the technical impact of design and component technology on both the turbine system as well as the entire wind farm, from the foundation to the electrical infrastructure. DNV GL's Turbine.Architect computes realistic values for the capital costs of turbine, Balance of Plant components, farm operational costs, availability and farm annual energy production.
Capital and Operational Costs
The tool’s validated engineering models produce concept-level technical specifications for turbine components and farm items, with up-to-date market intelligence translating these specifications into appropriate capital costs.
Similarly, operational costs and availability are quantified using models for Operation & Maintenance that are benchmarked with real field data. Its method to estimate energy production includes losses from rotor aerodynamics, drive train components and farm wakes, the latter by linking with DNV GL WindFarmer. Turbine.Architect also contains a discounted cash flow model where estimated costs and yield are escalated to Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE) and Net Present Value (NPV).
Screening and Assessment
As well as quick LCOE calculations at the early phases of a given project, the tool allows users to overwrite various components, in favour of informing the model with the results from other tools or analysis. The user may then do everything from high level screening of potential wind turbine design projects to detailed assessment of a specific system or component level technology innovation in the same tool, providing a unified way of presenting costs and calculating LCOE.
The flexibility of the tool also allows the user to test various cost reduction opportunities and perform sensitivity analysis, with the overarching objective of supporting an LCOE-driven design process.
